Cute vanilla snowman cupcakes with only 143.5 calories each

Blogger Gina Homolka at SkinnyTaste serves up recipes that are fun and healthy - even cupcakes! From her about page:

On Skinnytaste, you'll find healthy dishes that don't sacrifice any of the flavor that can be found in their full-fat origins. Gina knows all the food she prepares for Skinnytaste is tasty and satisfying, because after all, this is the same food she cooks on a daily basis for her friends and family, and they are some of her toughest critics!

She caught my eye with these very cute vanilla snowman cupcakes.



The recipe involves Duncan Hines Cake Mix and Chobani yogurt, whose nutritional stats clock in at:

Servings: 24 • Size: 1 cupcake • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts* (3 pts no frosting)Calories: 143.5 • Fat: 2.7 g • Carbs: 27.3 • Fiber: 0 • Protein: 2.1 g • Sugar: 19.6Sodium: 143.2 mg

And if you just can't get enough, she's got lots more recipes on her site. Here are two of the cupcake ones:


super moist low fat chocolate cupcakes with chocolate glaze


pink lemonade confetti cupcakes

You can also follow SkinnyTaste on Facebook and @SkinnyTaste on Twitter.

How to Make Modeling Chocolate and Roses

 

These roses are so pretty to me...because they're made out of chocolate.  And they're sitting on top of chocolate cupcakes. 

These were made by Sweet Revelations.  She got tired of expensive modeling chocolate and decided to make her own.  She wrote a really great tutorial about how to make modeling chocolate and these lovely dark chocolate roses!  She made it seem so easy that I might have to try it soon!

A little slice of PIE for Thanksgiving!!!

How adorable are these fondant topped cupcakes???

These were made by The Art of Being Perfect submitted on Pinterest.com

Super cute!!! Yummy yummy pie cupcakes made with fondant and if you look really closely you can see gingerbread men sprinkles on them too!!!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.... yummmm!

All aboard River's birthday cupcake train!

The always creative and cute Coco Cake Cupcakes in Vancouver made this cupcake choo-choo train for little boy River's birthday; see their blog post for all the details. This is such a fun idea! These are dark chocolate cupcakes and Berry Good cupcakes with fresh raspberries. Happy Birthday, River! For more information on Coco Cake Cupcakes, visit cococake.com. You can also check them out on Facebook and @cococakecupcake on Twitter.

Pumpkin Patch Vegan Cupcakes

Pumpkins are still in season right?!?!

Here are some really cute Pumpkin Patch Vegan Cupcakes from Sweet Elites:

These were taken from the Cupcakes Take the Cake Flckr group.

They may be a little Halloweeny but they are still pumpkins and they're cute for fall!!!

Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes

I wish I could eat one of these right now. They look so chocolaty. And who doesn't love pirouettes?

These swirled cupcakes were made by Jen at How To: Simplify. They were made by combining white cake batter and chocolate cake batter in cupcakes liners. They are topped with chocolate frosting and pirouettes cut in half. So cute!

S'mores Cupcakes

I haven't made cupcakes in a while, so I'm really excited about sharing these with you! I've wanted to make s'mores cupcakes for a while and I finally got the chance to earlier this week.

I had planned on making chocolate cupcakes, but I accidentally bought a dark chocolate cake mix. I'm glad I did though because it was delicious. I've seen a lot of s'mores cupcakes with toasted marshmallow frosting, so I decided to make a marshmallow filling instead. After searching the internet for an easy marshmallow filling recipe, I found this one from Erin Cooks. The cupcakes are topped with chocolate frosting, crushed graham crackers, and mini chocolate chips!

To see my whole post, head over to The Collegiate Baker!

Healthy Chocolate Frosting!



Healthy chocolate frosting? Is this real life? Yes! It is!

Katie at Chocolate Covered Katie got tired of paying for expensive Artisana Cacao Bliss, so she decided to make her own version that she just calls Chocolate Butter. It's made with coconut oil, cocoa powder, and agave. You can use this Chocolate Butter to make many different treats, like chocolate sauce, chocolate bars, or chocolate chips.

For directions and nutritional information, go here!

Cute monster cupcakes and chocolate hazelnut crunch mini cupcakes

These cute monster cupcakes are by Tammie Coe Cakes, taken by me at Cupcake Love-In. I didn't try them, but did try the chocolate hazelnut crunch mini cupcakes seen below, and was told to eat mine "like a shooter." I did and it was delicious! Light frosting, a little crunch, perfect size as it was the very last cupcake I ate at Cupcake Love-In.

Occupy Wall Street gets its own cupcake from Bake It in a Cake: Choco-pie Wall Street cupcake, with recipe link

Always creative filled cupcake blogger genius Bake It in a Cake pays tribute to Occupy Wall Street (and to chocolate lovers) with this Choco-pie Wall Street filled cupcake - click through for the recipe. Specifically, it's "a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate pudding pie baked in the center of it, topped off with cream cheese buttercream and, of course, a gold coin."

Chianti chocolate mini cupcakes and recpe link

These Chianti chocolate mini cupcakes are by blogger Sprinkle Bakes, where you can get the recipe and more photos. From the post:

The red wine flavor in the chocolate cake is subtle, so I felt punching up the Chianti taste with frosting was an absolute necessity. I made a simple confectioners' icing with a wine reduction and finished it with a few tablespoons of Chianti strait from the bottle. I've made these twice; once as full size cupcakes and once (shown here) as minis. I loved the minis, and could imagine them lined up on a fancy platter for the perfect sweet bite at a cocktail party.

chocolate caramel PRETZEL cupcakes with recipe link!

What better snack combination is there than pretzels and chocolate??

Pretzels and chocolate and CARAMEL!!!

Inspired by the cupcakeproject's chocolate pretzel cupcakes-- I decided that homemade caramel filling and drizzle would be a great addition to these flavor profiles and indulged myself with this fabulous dessert.

Pretzel crusts+chocolate cake+caramel/ganache filling+ganache dipping+pretzel caramel topping= I ate a dozen of these in like 3 days.

Super delicious. Happy National Chocolate Day!!!


For full recipe click here.

Chocolate wasted mini cupcakes and recipe link

These chocolate wasted mini cupcakes are for true chocolate lovers, and you can get the recipe from the blog Art of Dessert. They're mini versions of this cake, which was made with Hershey Kisses, Hershey bars, Kit Kat bars, Twix bars, Whoppers and Kahlua! Enjoy!

RIP Halloween gravestone cookie cupcakes

When I first saw these I thought "RIP because they look so good people will devour them right away!" They're by blogger Kids and My Kitchen, who has the recipe for the dark chocolate cupcakes and chocolate dip! From the post:

These aren't your typically overloaded-on-sugar chocolate cupcakes. The chocolate is dark, rich, and not overly sweet. I have tried several chocolate cupcake recipes and have not been completely satisfied. So, I had to tweak a couple things and try one more time. The result is the recipe above and it is oh so perfect!

Realistic and creepy black widow spider web Halloween chocolate rum cupcakes

These spider web Halloween cupcakes are by blogger 6 Bittersweets, who has the recipe for the decorations and the chocolate rum cupcakes (with instructions on how to make them without alcohol too). From the post:

... I really wanted to make my version more realistic and creepy than those I'd come across ^_^. Since it's notoriously difficult to color homemade fondant a true black and I happened to have some black modeling chocolate on hand, I turned to this medium to make my crawly friends more dimensional and thus, my spidery vision start coming to life. Then melted chocolate, red candy melts, and a good blast of cold freezer air did the rest!

Halloween Trick or Treat spicy chocolate cupcakes

These trick or treat cupcakes are by blogger Chocolate Teapot, where you can get the recipe, more photos and detailed instructions on how to make them.



I love the "trick" part:

The idea behind the Trick or Treat Cupcake is simple, with most of the cupcakes being 'normal' chocolate cupcakes. But beware ... some of them are not as they appear, they have finely minced chillies added to the mix for an added kick. In my batch of 18 cupcakes there are 6 tricksey ones to look out for, of course you won't know you have one of the tricky ones until you bite into it. Not all tricks are nasty ones though and so the chillies that I've added have been candied first, they still have all the heat of the chilli but they have a bit of a sweeter side to them too. I was hoping to be able to use my own home grown chillies but they are still ripening up on the plants so I had to resort to store bought chillies, to candy them check out my Chilli Lovers Hamper post (which also has a recipe for Lemongrass and Chilli White Chocolate Truffles!)

Creepy Stabbed Cupcakes

These are the creepiest Hallween cupcakes I have seen so far. They're so realistic! They were made by Peachy at The Peach Kitchen, who says that these cupcakes are a manifestation of all things creepy because who would want to stab a cupcake?

I don't like anything scary, but I have to admit that these cupcakes are pretty creative. They're chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. To make the glass, Peachy melted white mint candies into a slab of glass and then broke it into pieces. For the blood, she made strawberry jam and drizzled it on top.

To read more about how she made these broken glass cupcakes, go here!

For chocolate lovers: Mudslide cupcakes and recipe link

Blogger Tessa at Handle the Heat made these mudslide cupcakes for National Chocolate Cupcake Day (yesterday) and has the recipe! Here's how she assesses them:

Taste: The coffee and Kahlua combined with the chocolate is pure bliss.
Texture: The buttercream is magnificently lush, rich, and chocolatey. The cake is light and soft.
Ease: This recipe is a little more complicated than other cupcake recipes. It involves whipping egg whites, making coffee, and dirtying a few dishes. Don't let that scare you though! Just read the recipe completely before beginning and organize yourself.

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day!

How could I have forgotten? Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day everyone!!

Maybe I will go around NYC and eat my fill of them and report back if I have time. I do know that on my birthday, November 10th, when I'm going to see Jessie Oleson of Cakespy on her book tour at Baked in Red Hook, Brooklyn, it's National Vanilla Cupcake Day.


triple chocolate cupcake by Mily's Cupcakes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, via Flickr. See milyscupcakes.blogspot.com for ordering information.

And in the non-edible kind of chocolate cupcakes, you can buy this chocolate cupcake necklace from cupcake jewelry maker The Glass Chef on Etsy for $29.95:


Description from Etsy:

This one is all chocolate, looks good enough to eat and brown goes with everything! It dangles from an 18 inch, sterling silver, adjustable chain and has a sweet little chocolate color, Swarovski crystal as the cherry.

ZUMBA cupcakes!!

ZUMBA!!
You've heard of it right? The dance-cardio phenomenon that is the latest exercise sensation. Everybody and their mother is doing it (literally). I personally love Zumba-- and since moving to NYC from Buffalo, I really miss the Zumba classes I used to take at my old gym!

check em out

How cool are these? They are chocolate with chocolate buttercream, with fondant Zumba symbol toppers, made by Pipeline Confections.

Now, since we are talking about exercise and health here, you might want to eat one of these before you go take a Zumba class (or two!) --just to work off all the calories....

Reward yourself and get your Zumba on!!